Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 69: The evening of the banquet

When Belle woke up the next morning, she was alone in bed. She didn’t immediately get up and stared sightlessly at the space beside her where Rohan had slept last night and held her. She had slept the rest of the night with not a single nightmare. It was strange, the feeling of safety she had around him. If it weren’t for the lingering scent of her husband on the sheet, she would have thought he had not been with her last night.

With the help of Farrah, Belle did her morning routine and ate her breakfast alone in the room, as Rohan was said to have gone out yet again. She was too dreadful about the evening banquet to dwell on where he must have gone again. And honestly, after what they had done the night before and how she had shamelessly told him to pet her down there—not just that, he had gone on and used his mouth this time—she didn’t think she was ready to meet him. She hadn’t been embarrassed last night, but this morning was another thing, as when she was bathing and was washing, everything had come back to her in vivid clarity.

It was a great thing she had the impending banquet to distract her from last night and from him.

Whatever she did that morning was absentmindedly, as her thoughts and focus were on the quickly approaching evening and the ringing hall clock that ticked every hour of the day, and with the tick of the hours, her heart became more dreadful of the evening event that loomed over her like an impending doom.

She couldn’t even relax enough to read the book she had been reading last night, nor think about anything else. She paced the chamber when the sky began to show signs of darkening. Oh, how she hoped she could refuse to go. Should she have told Rohan last night that she didn’t want to go?

Right when that thought came to her mind, the maids came in with her dress and jewelry, hurrying her, as it seemed the royal carriage that would take them to the castle had arrived sooner than expected.

Belle had never been this nervous in her life. Perhaps she had been—on her wedding day—because that day was the worst of all the anxiousness she’d ever experienced. She kept asking Farrah about the royal vampires and what they were like, as the girl seemed to know so much and was happy to tell her.

There are two princes and two princesses. Each of them from separate mothers, as vampire women were not as fertile as humans, and childbirth came to them only once a decade or even four decades. Some never had it in them to birth a child and would live their lives without an offspring.

When the current king took the throne, he married and took on concubines—as many as there were vampire women who were fertile—and four of them, including his wife, gave him a child. Two girls, two boys. Farrah explained, because it was so important to continue the bloodline, as vampires were decreasing with the generations.

One of the princes had been married, and also one of the princesses, which left only two of them who were yet to get married. It was very crucial for them to also have an offsprings, but unfortunately, none of the married royals have had any child even after being married for years now, and that worried the king, as without a child, the throne might not fall to his children.

"If the vampire women can’t give birth, why not let them marry humans?" Belle asked.

Farrah chuckled softly. "It’s an abomination to have a halfbreed royal child. I haven’t seen or heard of any halfbreeds in a long time because the woman barely survives birthing a night creature as a human. The child always turns out to crave blood, and when the human can’t have it, it feeds on its mother instead. There were cases where the woman survived, but the child is born with traits that weren’t the same as the normal vampires. They turned out to be weak compared to the normal vampires, and some have human lifespans even though they consumed blood.

"So you see, my lady, no royal would let a halfbreed carry on their bloodline, and I have also heard that it is against the law to sire halfbreeds or for a vampire to marry a human. But then, I guess now Lord Dagon is an exception."

Belle digested the information given to her. No wonder the vampire king wasn’t willing to offer a royal marriage, because he didn’t want his son to marry a human. Was that why they had chosen the mad vampire as the groom? He was the only one related to the royals, but whatever he did would not directly affect the royal bloodline, as he was no longer the heir to it.

In Aragonia, regardless of whatever happened, as long as the rightful heir was still alive, the king’s brother could never have the throne. But it seemed it was different here, and Rohan was no longer in line and had no right to it.

According to Farrah, she would be treated like a princess as well, as the banquet was in her honor and she had nothing to worry about, but those words went through Belle’s ears without giving the effect of assuring her of the vampires she would have to mingle with in the royal castle.

She was soon dressed in the maroon ball gown she had tried on just yesterday without looking into the mirror. However, now that she got to see herself in the reflection, she was taken aback by the dress’s effect.

Farrah had done her hair in a way that half of it was gathered with a gold pin at the top of her head, with the lower portion let down her back in natural curly blonde waves that reached her waist.

The dress had a low-cut, heart-shaped neckline, sheer lace long sleeves, and a tight bodice. A stone-red diamond necklace rested on her collarbone, and it glistened under the candlelight. Everything she wore was made especially for her, and it fit perfectly, which made her wonder just how Rohan had gotten her measurements right and delivered them to the dressmaker without her knowledge.

It occurred to her that even though she had known Jamie for a year and a half, and they’d spent most of their time together in his shop where she helped him with his customers and he made most of the dresses she owned, he had never gotten her measurements right and would always require his female assistant to measure her again for each dress. But Rohan, for some reason, had gotten it right, as she’d heard he had personally gone to the shop and given orders without even taking a sample dress.

Though such a thing shouldn’t have caused such an intense reaction in her, her stomach flipped and her insides warmed up strangely.

She’d never worn anything half as beautiful and grand as this. The servants who had helped her kept showering her with praise that made her blush, as she’d never received such praises before. She was always a shadow to Eve—the unattractive elder sister and daughter—but here she was made into such... she almost thought herself beautiful, but she knew it was the effect of the makeup and dress and jewelry.

What amazed her even more was that Farrah had mixed some flower makeup powder to make some paste out of it and then carefully drawn it over her half-missing left brow to fill it up. No one would know she had a scar there.

"You look so beautiful, my lady!" Farrah gushed from the side as she looked at the lady in the mirror’s reflection, wishing deep down that she was the one in the dress and about to go to this banquet with the mad vampire to meet the royals. She had dressed up Belle in a way she would have, had she been the one going. But unfortunately, she was just a maidservant who wasn’t qualified enough to attend such an event.

"His lordship will like you even more when he sees how beautiful you have become. Men always like beautiful women," Farrah added as she took the comb to rearrange Belle’s hair.

"Oh..." Belle muttered, her face slightly falling a bit. Of course, men always liked beautiful women, and she was only beautiful for today because of all these things she had put on. She wondered if he would like this her much better than the real her without all these effects.

But then why should she care what he thought? It’s not like she cared about his opinion of her, Belle thought to herself. But somewhere in the corner of her mind, she knew that she was starting to care and also hoping he’d always find her attractive enough without all this.

"My lady, his lordship is waiting for you outside," Gwen came in to announce, her bright red eyes falling on Belle and seeing how much she had been transformed. "You look different," she remarked with a small frown as she took in the human and how much Farrah had worked on her hair and face.

Belle, who had never liked Gwen for being a vampire and for the fact that she always seemed to overwork Farrah, only nodded, as her opinion wasn’t needed. She then turned to her maidservant, "I will see you later and also tell you what the royals look like in person."

"Oh, you are so kind, my lady. I hope you have a good evening!" She bowed curtly and then watched as Belle turned and left with Gwen, and her green eyes trembled in envy.

Outside the castle, Rohan was talking to Rav beside the royal carriage that had come to pick them up when he felt the presence of his bunny and stopped, turned around in her direction, and then frowned slightly. She looked completely different. The dress he had personally went to get done suited her so well and enhanced her natural curves she was recovering lately after spending just a week in his castle—her rounded breasts pushed up and gave him the view of her perfect swell.

His eyes trailed from the hem of the big gown to the top of her head and then down again. He saw the deep blush that rose to her cheeks under his eyes. His wife was beautiful, all right, but what he didn’t like was that her natural beauty was hidden behind a mask of face-enhancing makeup many vampires used in Nightbrook to either hide their over-paleness or add to the paleness.

The freckles he found beautiful and fascinatingly unique were all covered up and dusted with powder. Even her front bangs were pulled and held back with pins to show her face.